We are not referring to the doping cases, which are a permanent fixture of top-level sport, but to something else.

Let’s start with badminton, where eight women players were disqualified. Their offence was that they deliberately tried to lose.
They played so badly that they were booed off.

 Top-class  players regularly served into the net or hit wide, apparently on purpose.

 They were obviously trying to manipulate the standings in order to determine who they’d have to meet later.

Most commentators had no problem with these disqualifications. But what about the Japanese women’s  football team?

While South Africans were delighted with Banyana’s draw against the world champions, Japanese player Azusa Iwashimizu puts the result in a different light.

“It was the coach’s instruction that we wanted to stay in Cardiff and come second in the group”, she said.

If that is an admission  of playing badly in order to manipulate the draw, perhaps the Japanese team should also be disqualified.

On radio yesterday some were even suggesting that South African swimming hero Chad le Clos could be guilty of manipulation by pulling out of the individual medley final in order to give himself a better chance in the 100m butterfly.

 That’s not a fair comparison. Such event-switching is common among elite individual athletes who must make careful choices about where they can be most effective.

Le Clos was joint slowest qualifier for the individual medley.
Obviously the calculation was made that he has a better chance of a medal in the 100m butterfly. He has already scooped gold in the 200m.

One crucial difference between the badminton players and the women’s football team is just how badly the badminton women performed.

Those who witnessed the games, either as paying spectators or as journalists, were appalled and disgusted by what they called a farce.

You go to the Olympics to see the best compete against one another.

 Those who paid to watch obviously felt cheated, as would prospective opponents being lined up by what is perceived as Chinese orchestration.

This manipulation goes against the sporting creed, that “it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game”.
 Of course, to most it does matter whether you win or lose, otherwise there wouldn’t be such fanfare around different classes of medals. But how you play the game is still important.

 The Olympic motto, “Swifter, Higher, Stronger”, is of little help in guidance on this matter. But the motto of the London Olympics, “Inspire A Generation”, is certainly apposite.

When spectators boo competitors who are obviously throwing a match, the judges must know they are dealing with an example that must be stamped out.

Deliberately hitting the shuttlecock into the net will not inspire a generation to achieve anything noble.

Badminton’s bad apples deserve their fate.